The world in which Amaya had been dragged back to was normal for the most part, aside from the person who'd actually dragged her out of that nightmare. Nobody was alarmed, Koro-sensei was still lecturing in the next room, only this time on biology. So she hadn't screamed or caused a ruckus during her nightmare.

The only factor that was different, was the perturbed red-head still holding her by the shoulders.

There was a strange sense of deja vu about the situation though.

She vaguely recalled that he'd woken her up in almost the exact same way from a very similar nightmare before, though she couldn't recall when that could have been.

Though that time, he'd just been a little startled.

'K-Karma?' She managed to say, staring up at him with wide eyes. 'What are you--?'

She didn't get to ask anything further.

In an instant, the perturbed look across his face escalated to a different look she couldn't read, and he'd immediatley let go of her shoulders as he grabbed her by the wrist, and dragged her from the bed before she even knew what was going on.

The next second, he was dragging her out of the infirmary altogether.

'W-wait! What the hell?!' Amaya managed to gasp out, barely managing to maintain her balance as she was dragged outside through the back door of the building.

The grip he had of her wrist was uncomfortably tight, strong enough where she wouldn't be able to free herself without a lot of trouble. She also noticed that there was a lot of tension his his grip too - oddly enough, it felt like his hand was shaking, though she didn't understand why.

In reality, she didn't understand why he seemed so bothered right now.

It was almost like her reaction had actually upset him.

Though she honestly quite doubted that.

She was dragged over to the line of trees that circled the schoolyard, where as soon as the classroom was obscured by trees, he stopped and turned to face her, releasing her wrist in preference for crossing his arms over his chest.

She didn't know if anyone had noticed them, nor did she really want to contemplate it.

'What's going on?' Karma questioned, his tone rather blunt and to the point, unlike his usual drawling manner.

'That's what I was trying to ask you!' Amaya deadpanned.

'Don't change the subject, Amay.' He told her, his gaze narrowing as he stared her down. 'I asked you a question, and I expect an answer.'

Amaya shivered uncomfortably at the stern edge to his voice.

That unfamiliar look she could read was written clear across his face, but she could also see that he wasn't necessarily mad, but more frustrated. But she could also see that it wouldn't take much to piss him off, either...

What the hell had she managed to do this time?!

'I-I umm ... I don't really know what you're getting at.' Amaya responded hesitantly, though truthfully despite how poorly her words were chosen.

She really didn't know what he was getting at, because of late there was always something going on with her. She honestly needed more than just the rather vague question to go by.

'Amay.' He spoke in a warning tone, the sharpness in his gaze increasing as Amaya huffed. 'Don't make me ask again.'

'More like demand.' Amaya muttered out of argumentative habit, however she honestly hadn't meant to.

She only realized the words had escaped her as Karma fixed her with a rather volatile glare as he began to approach her.

Amaya made an attempt at regaining the distance from him that she was losing, however she found herself already practically with her back against a tree - the half a step back she managed actually had her pressed up against the tree.

'I can force the answers out of you, if you'd prefer.' The red-head assured her, an angry glint in his eyes as he came to a stop right in front of Amaya, grabbing her by the shoulders to pin her to the tree as she made an attempt at escape. 'However I've made a point of refraining from doing that ever since you got angry at me.'

She heard the frustration loud and clear in that remark, bringing her to hang her head slightly as she thought on that for a few seconds.

It was as she realized that he really hadn't forced her into talking about anything since that argument that she began to feel horribly guilty.

He'd actually listened to her and she hadn't even noticed.

'I'm sorry ... I didn't mean to ...'

'That wasn't the point.' Karma responded, the harsh edge to his tone a clear indicator that his patience was wearing very thin. 'You can either just spill right now, or I'll cut to the chase and ask you exactly what I want to know.'

Amaya let out a small breath, before she lifted her gaze to look up at him.

'Spill about what? You still haven't clarified what it is you're talking about.' She told him, hints of exasperation touching her voice as she found that he was still staring down at her with a very sharp glare.

He stared at her for a few long seconds in silence, seeming as if he was sifting through words inside his head. Before long, he seemed let out a breath and his grip of her shoulders loosened ever so slightly, though he didn't lose the obvious frustration and agravation, or give any of her personal space back.

There was probably something very specific he wanted to say to her right now, but for some reason it seemed like he was avoiding it.

'You get like this every year.' Karma told her, his glare softening just a little as Amaya stared up at him. 'Every May, you start distancing yourself, and you start having nightmares. Last year, you even disappeared for two whole weeks, and neither Yuta or Reiko could tell me where you went.'

Amaya's confusion began to melt away as she realized where this was going, and in fact her exasperated expression melted away as well.

Making way for a composed, almost guarded look that she couldn't stop from creeping into place.

'That's what you're getting at?' Amaya asked quietly, refraining from letting out a sigh as Karma maintained his piercing stare. 'I didn't just disappear, Karma.'

'What difference is there when not even your siblings knew where exactly you were?' He demanded.

Amaya watched him in silence for a couple of seconds, debating whether or not she really wanted to say anything at all.

She wanted to keep a lid on this - She didn't want to open the box and talk about this kind of stuff with anyone.

Not even with him.

But having said that, it wasn't like she could get away from him when he was keeping her pinned against the tree, and he seemed upset enough where he probably wouldn't let her get away, even if she did manage to get out of this rather precarious position.

She let out a breath after a few moments, giving in as she turned her head to look away from the angry red-head pinning her to the tree.

'They know where I went... I go out there every year to visit my mother, after all.' She eventually gave in.

She heard his breath catch in his throat, his grip of her shoulders twitching just the smallest bit, like she'd caught him by surprise.

Probably because this was the first time he'd ever heard her mention family outside of Yuta and Reiko.

'Your ... mother?' She heard him say, his grip of her shoulders tighten a little and his gaze burning against the side of her face. 'You mean she's not ...?'

'Dead?' Amaya interjected, turning her head to look back up at him. She noticed a peculiar look she couldn't identify across his face as he gave her a small nod of the head in response. 'Sure is. She's been dead for a while, now.'

More like mince-meat inside a coffin for nearly nine years.

Though she wasn't going to tell anyone that.

Karma was silent at first, staring at her with overwhelming intensity in his gaze.

'And your father too, right?' He eventually asked.

She understood that he was more or less just trying to clarify if his assumptions were correct.

But unfortunately she couldn't stop the harsh, humourless laugh from escaping her in response to his question.

Oh how she wished he was mince-meat inside a coffin, instead of her Mother.

Maybe that way he could stop subjecting other people to torture?

'Nope.' She remarked with a straight face and a particularly serious tone of voice. 'Unfortunately for everyone else, he's still alive and kicking.'

Amaya felt like she was being uncharacteristically blunt about it, but it was about the only way she could keep it brief and simple without him tugging on other strings and asking her even more questions.

From the tiniest hint of concern that she caught appear across his face, she guessed he'd noticed, too.

'So you've got some form of contact with him, then?' Karma asked.

'Not since I left Okinawa, no.' Amaya responded, entirely serious.

'Then do you know where he is?'

'Presumably he's still living in England with his current wife. Or he could be over in Germany with someone else entirely - I honestly couldn't care less about whether he's doing well or not.'

Karma watched her for several long seconds, his brow furrowed even more at the rather uncaring edge to her words.

'You don't get along with him, do you?' He eventually asked her.

She remained silent, despite the question he'd asked her.

That was enough - Any more, and it would open the can of worms she wanted to escape.

Her silence didn't appear to bother him, however - An understanding look appeared in his eyes after a few seconds, and he let out a breath as he nodded ever so slightly.

She'd never divulged into her background before, and he was aware of it.

He was probably aware that there was a limit to how far he could push the topic, though undoubtedly there were other things he wanted to ask her.

'Karma-kun!' Echoed a familiar voice all of a sudden, cutting through the rather uncomfortable atmosphere with great effect.

Karma seemed to blink slightly in confusion, though he turned his head to look over in response to his name being called.

Over towards the classroom was Koro-sensei, who was making his way over, his face a telltale shade of purple with a darker cross in the centre of his face. It didn't appear that he'd noticed Amaya's presence just yet, and for some reason, that was a little uncomfortable for Amaya, who still couldn't escape.

'Sensei is not impressed!' Koro-sensei announced in a rather tempermental manner, stepping through the trees as he continued to approach. 'Karma-kun, first you're late to class! Second, I sent you to go wake Amaya-san in the infirmary, and I instead find you out here instead of--'

It appeared that Koro-sensei had finally noticed Amaya stuck there, for he had suddenly froze in his tracks, and his words had cut short.

If possible, the situation got even more awkward when Koro-sensei's face suddenly turned a light shade of pink.

'O-oh! I think I interrupted something!' Koro-sensei remarked with an embarrassed tone of voice, though he didn't seem at all apologetic. 'Continue on! I'll just go back to the classroom!'

Amaya wasn't convinced that was what Koro-sensei was doing, and for good reason too.

As he whirled around on his tentacles to start heading back to the classroom, she noticed him discretely take out his notebook and begin to frantically write inside.

Annoyed, and presumably embarrassed, Karma seemed to suddenly release Amaya's shoulders like she was something vile and disgusting, and stalked off after Koro-sensei's quickly disappearing form to try and assassinate him.

Amaya was silent at first, staring after the red-head as he threw an Anti-Sensei knife at the back of the creature's head with much more force than normal, before she pulled herself away from the tree.

She felt oddly numb after that interrogation, oddly exhausted too.

She looked down at her feet, which she only just noticed were clad in just her socks, deciding that she may as well just go home for the day.

She wasn't interested in sitting in a classroom right now, nor was she interested in the drama over the sudden change in the Fixed Artillery's personality.

It felt like she was skipping a lot of classes of late, but in reality it didn't really matter to her.

She had no further plans past Yuta and Reiko graduating high-school.

There was nothing she wanted to do with her life.

So even if she failed middle-school, it wouldn't really matter to her.

Amaya made her way back inside through the back door of the building, wiping her feet as best she could on the doormat.

She ignored the shoes in the infirmary as she grabbed her bag from the foot of the bed, gently slinging it over her shoulder as she walked out of the room again.

Nobody seemed to notice her walk back past the classroom, all too busy interacting with the Fixed Artillery to really know one way or another if there was someone walking through the corridor. Karma was inside, just watching as well.

Though she did feel someone look at her through the window once she'd pulled her boots on and stepped outside.

She had a feeling she knew who it was, as well.

The trip back to her apartment was as normal as anything, and remarkably quiet for the most part.

For some reason, there were no delinquents around, and a lot of the usual hustle and bustle wasn't present on the train.

Though she learned of why by the third stop leaving from Kunugigaoka.

It appeared that there was some kind of downtown brawl between Hayashi's mob and another whom Karma tended to pick on instead - Amaya could see many of these forms actually lying on the ground outside the backpackers lodging, though no Hayashi was anywere. It looked like his senpai were the casualties of a good ass-whopping, as were the other group.

Amaya would have assumed it was a three-way brawl if not for the presence of a good five members of Hayashi's group still standing in the shadows of the backpackers lodging.

For some reason, the train was delayed at this station with the doors open, and Amaya was given an opportunity to sight a rather entertaining scenario.

A rough and tumble girl approximately about Amaya's own age stepped out of the backpackers lodging, standing tall and with an athletic build. She had blonde hair with bright red ends pulled into a ponytail at the back of her head, and blue eyes. With a tanned complexion, tattoos visible over her arms and across her chest, and clad in a blue cap, dusty purple tanktop and jeans with torn cuffs, Amaya surmised that this girl was quite fine with getting her hands dirty if the situation required it.

Or rather, she learned that the girl enjoyed it.

Upon stepping out of the backpackers lodging, one of the delinquents noticed her departure and decided to try and catch her attention.

This was met with a response that made Amaya chuckle to herself.

The very moment the delinquent had tapped the girl's shoulder, she threw an elbow back hard, right into the guy's face. A gushing fountain of blood erupted from his nose, a split second later another elbow was slammed right into his chest, however the girl did nothing but snicker over her shoulder and continue on her way at a jog, as if there was no problem at all.

Coincidentally right for the station Amaya's train had stopped at.

Two of the delinquents that weren't with a gushing nose seemed to take the girl's retaliation like a declaration of war, for they began to tear after the girl with great effort, leaving two others to help the delinquent with a shattered nose.

'All doors closing.' Echoed from the PA system of the train as the girl threw herself over the fence of the station ramp, pair of delinquents closing in on her.

Feeling a little helpful at that second, Amaya stopped the door in front of her closing by putting her foot in the way, catching the girl's attention.

She sprinted right for the door, and as soon as she'd gotten inside, backpack and all, Amaya shifted her foot from the doorway.

The door of the train carriage closed a mere second before the sprinting delinquents ran into the door, their faces awash with glares as they recovered their footing and tried to locate the blond girl they'd tried to catch.

However they instead found themselves staring at Amaya, and their glares vanished to make way for alarm in an instance as she merely waved to them.

'Haha! Sucks to be you losers!' The blond cheered loudly as she straightened up on her feet, a smug, mocking look across her face as she flipped the delinquent duo off.

Amaya smirked as the train began to depart from the station, and the delinquents didn't once look away from her.

Well, the two obviously recognized her for some reason.

She wondered if it was when she almost killed some of them a month ago.

'Thanks for the save, mate.' The blond girl announced all of a sudden, drawing Amayas attention from the cityscape outside.

The girl was grinning with a kind of lofty edge to her as she looked down at Amayas rather contrasting height.

'No problem.' Amaya responded turning to lean with her back against the wall of the carriage. 'It's always good to screw with Hayashi's mob.'

Amaya felt the girl smirk cockily at her, though she didn't return the gaze.

'So you know those wankers, huh?'

'On a meet-and-greet basis.' Amaya responded, glancing up at the blond as she dropped her backpack to the floor at her feet with little care. 'I'm usually the one curb-stomping their faces into the concrete.'

The girl blinked all of a sudden, turning her head to give Amaya a more thorough look-over.

'Guess that explains why they suddenly backed off at the sight of ya.' She remarked, though oddly enough she sounded kind of amused by that thought.

Amaya guessed that she didn't look too formidable right now.

'Names Sabeji, by the way.' The blond introduced herself, her tone matter of fact as she watched Amaya with a smirk.

Amaya was at first a little surprised, however she went with the flow.

'Katsuragi Amaya.' She responded with a glance to the girl called Sabeji.

She received a smirk in response, and both were returned to silence.

The rest of the trip to Amaya's station continued as such, speckled with minor exchange of words here and there.

It turned out that the girl called Sabeji used to live in Tokyo, however she'd left for a three-year exchange program to Australia, which was where her rather colourful way of words had come from. She'd just come back to Japan today, moving in with a close friend of hers from when she was last in Japan, called Ryouma.

For some reason, the name Ryouma tickled at Amaya's mind like it was important for some reason, though she did her best to push it from her mind.

'Catcha on the flip-side Amaya.' Sabeji announced as the train pulled into the station just two stops before Amaya's own, and before she knew it, the blond girl had taken off out of the train at a jog, throwing herself over the nearest fence to continue on her way.

Amaya blinked in an owlish manner, waving slightly as the doors of the train closed once again, whisking her onwards back home.

Sabeji, huh?

Well, the delinquent population was probably going to have a harder time picking fights with another curb-stomper around.

---={[Author Note]}=---

And that's Chapter Forty One :) We should see some proper Amaya background in the next chapter :)

Chapter Dedication this time around is for BishOfAwesome :) Additionally, the Character called Sabeji is an OC created by her, featured in her own Terasaka x OC story, called Unkillable (I'm so sorry if I didn't get her right! I couldn't find your story to double-check, so I made a couple of changes ... is that okay?) Sabeji in here is a cameo request :) :D I would say go check it out, but it doesn't look like the story's up anymore O_O; Hmmm... Well anyway, Sabeji is owned by BishOfAwesome, haha xD

And this time around, I have a Writer Spotlight for you all :) We have a new Wattpad member called Rizukana :) She's been a member for just over a week now, and she has a cute and very well written Karma x OC story, called Troublemaker :) I highly recommend checking it out :D And also, Rizukana, thank you for reading my story :D

Anyways, if anyone has any questions or just wanna say howdy, then I'm all ears and would love to hear from y'all. And also, I hope you've all had a wonderful Halloween :D Some things have been chaotic over on my side (My Mom's partner, who's been around so long he's practically family was participating in a Grand Opening event for Perth Motorplex and apparently there was a lot going on T^T; )

Anyways, all of you take care of yourselves, and I hope to see you all doing well :D

Translation Notes for Chapter Forty One:

Torishirabe - Translates as Interrogation, which is written as 取り調べ in Japanese.